The federal government announced funding of $1,889,500 April 25 towards a new Centre for Grid Innovation (CGI) at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).
Through the investment, the CGI, which will be located at NAIT’s Productivity and Innovation Centre (PIC), will help companies explore innovative power generation technologies and move them to market by providing a ‘plug and play’ microgrid to develop, test and demonstrate new grid technology and renewable energy prototypes. The facility will also help foster partnerships between businesses, utilities providers and vendors.
NAIT explains that the CGI will help companies develop new grid technologies that may result in a bi-directional grid, where consumers can also be producers by harnessing energy alternatives such as solar, wind, batteries, and combined heat and power.
CGI aims to address challenges such as managing the remote control of assets; forecasting the generating capacity of new technologies; assuring grid protection; managing bi-directional energy flows and connections; certification and testing of new technologies; and resilience against cyber attacks.